According to a report by ChinaAid on April 2nd, 2018 (http://www.chinaaid.net/2018/04/blog-post_2.html?m=1 the Chinese government started confiscating and burning Uyghur-language books in various parts of East Turkestan. The regime ordered the Uyghur students and their parents to bring the Uyghur-language books from their houses, and warned them that they will be arrested if there are any books found when their houses are searched.

As one of the ancient peoples in the heart of Central Asia, Uyghurs have rich cultural heritage and literary tradition. However, Uyghurs are now facing unprecedented and unimaginable ethnic oppression and cultural genocide by the Chinese regime. One heinous example of this cultural genocide is burning of Uyghur language books.

The Chinese communist regime has carried out numerous large-scale book burning and cultural heritage destruction policies after its occupation of East Turkestan in 1949. During the so-called “Cultural Revolution” (1966-1976), most of the historical documents and literary treasures of the Uyghurs were destroyed. The thousand-year old Uyghur Arabic alphabet was outlawed and replaced by an alphabet based on the Chinese Pinyin system. At the same time, the books in the Uyghur Arabic Alphabet were labeled as “reactionary” and were confiscated and burned. After a brief period of revival of Uyghur culture and literature during the 1980s, the Uyghur language books once again started facing inspection and confiscation since the 1990s.

According to a 2002 report by the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) (http://unpo.org/article/101 the Chinese regime confiscated and burned more than 730 types of books in Kashgar, East Turkestan. Those books included such works as “A Brief History of the Huns” and “Ancient Uyghur Literature” by famous Uyghur author and historian Turghun Almas. Among the hundreds of thousands of books burned, there were 32,320 copies of a single book titled “Ancient Uyghur Craftsmanship”. This book was deemed “dangerous” and banned just because it contained historical documents about traditional Uyghur hand craftsmanship, such as paper making. In the same year, Uyghur language books published by the Kashgar Uyghur Publishing House were inspected and 330 types of books were deemed “problematic”. Those books were stopped from future re-printing and were confiscated and burned.

According to a report by Nicholas Bequelin and published by the Human Rights in China (HRIC) (https://www.hrichina.org/sites/default/files/PDFs/CRF.1.2004/b1_Criminalizing1.2004.pdf in 2002, the Chinese regime banned 52 out of the 118 magazines published in East Turkestan at the time because of their “sensitive” contents. According to a November 2, 2006 report by Tangritagh (Tian’shan) Net, an official Chinese propaganda website, so-called “Autonomous Regional” Government in East Turkestan organized a “One Hundred-Day Crackdown Against Illegal Publications” special meeting and burned 215,943 copies of Uyghur-language books.

After the appointment of Chen Quanguo as the Communist Party chief in East Turkestan in August 2016, the Uyghur language has been outlawed as a medium in the entire educational field. Meanwhile, the Chinese regime stepped up their policy of confiscating and burning Uyghur- language books, including books about Uyghur history, culture and Islam, as well as other cultural and religious materials, such as Uyghur-related pictures, audio-video materials, praying rugs, etc. Not only the Chinese regime is banning and burning the Uyghur language books, but it is also giving out 5 to 20 year jail terms for those Uyghurs who either have read or kept the banned books. In addition, the regime has been arresting Uyghur authors, editors, singers, artists, and religious scholars. Even some retired editors have also been arrested for the work that they did before their retirement. In June, 2017, the Chinese regime broke into the house of 80-year old Uyghur author/writer Mirzahid Kerimi and confiscated historical novels he authored and other books in his house.

In this day and age, there are not many places in the World other than East Turkestan, where people can be arbitrarily detained, arrested and severely punished just because they have read a book. The burning of the Uyghur language books, the eradication of the Uyghur cultural heritage and the punishment of the Uyghur authors are not only an affront to Uyghurs in East Turkestan, but also an unforgivable insult to any human being who loves and cherishes freedom and knowledge. Such criminal action of the Chinese regime against Uyghurs is also a cultural genocide against humanity.

We, the Uyghurs, are powerless and helpless at the moment in our fight against the Chinese government’s atrocities, and cannot fight this battle for our survival alone. We need the support of all the justice-loving people in the world. If tens of thousands of people from around the world sign our petition, it may be possible that the United Nations will make a commitment and will act to stop the tragedy that the Uyghur people are facing today.

Please join us in our fight to end the appalling atrocities happening in East Turkestan. Please spread the word so that people around the world could learn about the cultural genocide happening in East Turkestan. Please sign and share this petition. Thank you!

Authorities in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) have detained prominent Uyghur professor and poet Abdulqadir Jalaleddin and are believed to be holding him in one of the region’s many “political re-education camps,” according to a local official.

On Monday, Munich-based World Uyghur Congress issued a statement condemning the detention of Jalaleddin, citing reports that police had raided his home on Jan. 29, placed a black hood over his head and arrested him.

“The Chinese government has provided no justification for his arrest and he has not been publicly charged with any crime, despite his continued detention,” the statement said, adding that Jalaleddin is among many Uyghur writers, scholars, academics and journalists held in the XUAR.

The WUC urged the international community to “push back against these efforts” and raise such cases to ensure accountability for human rights violations in the region.

The statement followed reports last month from RFA listeners, as well as from the Munich-based East Turkistan Information Centre, that Jalaleddin—a lecturer at the Xinjiang Pedagogical University in the XUAR capital Urumqi—had been arrested by Chinese State Security Police.

Officials who answered calls from RFA’s Uyghur Service to Urumqi’s Tengritagh (in Chinese, Tianshan) District Police Station, Ulanbay District Police Station, and Xinjiang Normal University in recent days said they were unaware of Jalaleddin’s detention and refused to answer further questions.

But an official who answered the phone at a branch office of the Xinjiang Pedagogical University Security Department told RFA that the professor hadn’t been seen since classes broke for winter vacation—around three months earlier.

“We saw him before the winter vacation, but since we returned from holiday we haven’t seen him,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“We heard that he has been taken for re-education. The university knows about it, but we have not been officially informed yet.”

The official referred further questions to Feng Wenchang, the head of political affairs for the university’s Public Security Office.

During a telephone interview, Feng checked a “list of arrested university staff” and confirmed that Jalaleddin had been detained.

“I can see here that he was taken away by the Urumqi State Security Police on Jan. 29,” he said, adding that “no other information” was available about his case.
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Since April 2017, Uyghurs accused of harboring “strong religious views” and “politically incorrect” views have been jailed or detained in re-education camps throughout the XUAR, where members of the ethnic group have long complained of pervasive discrimination, religious repression, and cultural suppression under Chinese rule.

China’s central government authorities have not publicly acknowledged the existence of re-education camps in the XUAR, and the number of inmates kept in each facility remains a closely guarded secret, but local officials in many parts of the region have in RFA telephone interviews forthrightly described sending significant numbers of Uyghurs to the camps and even described overcrowding in some facilities.

Maya Wang of the New York-based Human Rights Watch told The Guardian in January that estimates of XUAR residents who had spent time in the camps went as high as 800,000, while at least one Uyghur exile group estimates that up to 1 million Uyghurs have been detained throughout the region since April 2017, and some Uyghur activists say nearly every Uyghur household has been affected by the campaign.

On the same day Jalaleddin was detained, RFA received reports that prominent Uyghur Islamic scholar Muhammad Salih Hajim had died in Chinese police custody, some 40 days after he was detained at a re-educaiton camp in Urumqi.

The exact circumstances of his death are unknown, but sources have suggested Hajim was subjected to torture and other forms of ill-treatment during his detention.

Since Xinjiang party chief Chen was appointed to his post in August 2016, he has initiated unprecedented repressive measures against the Uyghur people and ideological purges against so-called “two-faced” Uyghur officials—a term applied by the government to Uyghurs who do not willingly follow directives and exhibit signs of “disloyalty.”

China regularly conducts “strike hard” campaigns in Xinjiang, including police raids on Uyghur households, restrictions on Islamic practices, and curbs on the culture and language of the Uyghur people, including videos and other material.

While China blames some Uyghurs for “terrorist” attacks, experts outside China say Beijing has exaggerated the threat from the Uyghurs and that repressive domestic policies are responsible for an upsurge in violence there that has left hundreds dead since 2009.

Reported by by Shohret Hoshur for RFA’s Uyghur Service. Translated by RFA’s Uyghur Service. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.